Body of sister who tried to rescue 6-year-old found

Mar. 15, 2013
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Rescuers search for a 16-year-old girl and 28-year-old man Thursday, March 14, after they tried to rescue the girl's 6-year-old brother who had slipped on rocks under a pedestrian bridge at Falls Park in Sioux Falls, S.D. / Elisha Page, (Sioux Falls, S.D.) Argus Leader

Garrett Wallace of Vermillion, S.D., slipped into the water at about 6 p.m. MDT Thursday while climbing rocks under a pedestrian bridge at Falls Park in northern Sioux Falls, authorities said.

The kindergartener was able to get out of the water, but it was unclear how he did so. Sioux Falls' police chief, Doug Barthel, said they don't know whether the boy was in the water when his sister, Madison Wallace, and Lyle Eagletail, 28, of Sioux Falls went in after him or if he was in runoff foam that floats above the water.

Emergency workers carried the boy away from the river wrapped in a blanket, and he was not injured, said Jim Sideras, Sioux Falls Fire Rescue chief.

"These people literally jumped in without thinking of their own safety and trying to rescue that child," Sideras said. "It's a very noble act that they did, and they probably contributed to saving that boy's life."

A friend of Eagletail who witnessed the tragedy, Napoleon Ducheneaux, 21, said Eagletail was holding onto the girl and boy by their hands before his hands began sliding. Then, he just "slipped and disappeared," Ducheneaux said.

A third person tried to help and briefly held Eagletail's arm as the first police officer arrived on scene, but the rescuer couldn't hang on.

"Unfortunately, (the officer) wasn't able to get there in time to assist him, and he lost his grip," Barthel said. Water temperature of the river is close to freezing.

The body of Madison Wallace, a sophomore at Vermillion High School about 60 miles north of here, was found Friday after an all-night search, Sideras said.

Crews diverted water from upstream to aid in the search and recovery effort, but higher water levels earlier may have pushed the Eagletail's body farther along the river, Sideras said. Fast-moving current, jagged ice 2 feet thick in places that was broken up by rescuers, foam up to 10 feet deep, and murky water have been hindering the search.

"Everybody here has their eyes on water. Looking for something as small as a knee, patch of clothing," he said.

Sideras said he has been in contact with Madison Wallace's father, who is in a state of shock.

"Our prayers are with them, we want to help them cope as best they can," he said.

The city of Sioux Falls is named after the Big Sioux River's cascading waterfalls in Falls Park. Fatal accidents are rare at the park.

In 2006, the body of Travis Hallan, 29, was found just north of the falls after his canoe tipped over. In 1999, Slavisa Andric, 26, drowned after losing his footing on rocks at the park. A bystander in 1997 pulled the body of Omar Iasi Ibrahim Warsame, 43, from the water below a bridge where he had been fishing.